Rep. Peter King: 'No doubt in my mind that this is a terrorist attack'

This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," April 15, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

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I'm Bill O'Reilly, this is a special edition of The Factor. Here are the facts. The cowardly attack happened just before 3:00 this afternoon. A bomb exploded on Boylston Street on the marathon route in the Back Bay section of Boston. A few seconds later a second bomb exploded about 100 yards away from the first.

There are reports that authorities disarmed two other improvised explosive devices or IEDs the kind that are used in Afghanistan or Iraq. That report from the Associated Press.

Also there are reports that police are investigating a man who was hurt in the explosion. We don't know more than that at this juncture except that he is in the hospital.

President Obama has addressed the nation and promised justice. But he made one mistake. The President called the attack a tragedy. It was not. It was a vile act of violence designed to kill innocent people, including children.

I was just in Boston yesterday and this makes me sick. So far no one has claimed responsibility for the attack. Perhaps it's a coincidence but this week marks the anniversary of attacks in Oklahoma City, Columbine, Colorado and Virginia Tech, also the WACO assault in 1993.

Joining us now from Washington Congressman Peter King, a Member of the House Homeland Security Committee. So, Congressman, what can you tell us tonight?

REP. PETER KING (R-NY), MEMBER OF HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: Well, as you said, Bill, this is absolutely horrific. It's detestable and it has only the marks of a terrorist attack. In fact, the way it was carried out and to me there is no doubt in my mind that this is a terrorist attack. I know there is a person of interest I guess they are calling him now.

But to me, this -- this reminds me very much of the attack on Times Square in 2010 by Shahzad. And also we have to remember "Inspire" which is the magazine for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has called for terrorist attacks on athletic events in the United States, on iconic events.

And this is both, the Boston marathon on Patriots Day is the -- almost the ultimate as far as an iconic, athletic all-American event. And also mass -- mass killing of civilians.

Again, I -- we don't know for certain but, to me, I think we have to be looking toward either al Qaeda or an off shoot of al Qaeda or a self- starter here in the United States, a home-grown terrorist.

O'REILLY: Well, I mean, I think the FBI fairly soon will ascertain exactly what the profile is. In fact, there is a press conference coming up around 8:30. We'll go to that immediately.

KING: Right.

O'REILLY: And the FBI and the Boston authorities in a combined press conference. But at this point, we don't want to speculate, but we do know that it was designed to kill and maim -- and maim.

KING: Right.

O'REILLY: See this is a very disturbing part. The reports are there were shrapnel and ball bearings and things like that. Other eyewitness reports have limbs being blown off in horrific way.

So this wasn't designed to do anything other than create chaos and pandemonium as 9/11 was. It's the same MO. Now as you said both domestic and foreign terrorists use this kind of stuff.

When something like this happens, you being on the homeland security committee, do you guys do anything in Congress? I mean, do you get on the phone with the FBI and/or with your fellow members of the committee? How does that work?

KING: Well, speaking for myself, I have been on the phone all afternoon with police and fire officials, with sources I have in the federal government. I'm on the intelligence committee also. We will be getting a briefing on this tomorrow. But no, this has to be a full-court press.

And Bill, I hope this is a wakeup call to members of Congress. We've had people in the Senate, in particular, talking about reducing aid, for instance to the New York City Police Department and its counter terrorism efforts. Somehow the feeling is just because we haven't been successfully attacked in 11 years that we have nothing to worry about.

Well, if anything good can come out of such a horrible event as today maybe it will be a wakeup call. We have enemies out to destroy us. They never let up and in many ways they are more treacherous than they were before. Since September 11th because they metastasized they've morphed. And they are -- and many are under the radar screen.

And that's why we have to be so aggressive. We have to be on top of this because once somebody arrives at an event with explosive device it's very difficult to stop them. You can have all the security and all that's essential but the real way to stop it is by intelligence beforehand and by going out into communities.

O'REILLY: Sure.

KING: And finding out what's going to happen. Not waiting for it to come to us.

O'REILLY: Yes informers -- informers hear something. Now remind people what happened in Times Square when the guy from Connecticut drove down with a car and was going to park it and blow Times Square up. Just remind people what the modus operandi was and how the authorities stopped it.

KING: Well it was -- he actually put together his own device. He had been trained in Pakistan. He came over here and he drove down from Connecticut. And he crashed on Saturday night in May 2010. Fortunately the bomb didn't go off; it burst into fire it did not explode.

But the reason for that was this guy knew what he was doing. But he also knew that if a certain devices are purchased, especially in New York that the NYPD monitors it. They know the types of explosives, they know the types of fuses, they know the types of fireworks. They know what to go into a homemade bomb.

And because of that he purchased everything just below the level that had to be reported. And in doing that he ended up putting together a bomb that didn't work. Ironically enough, I was meeting with a high ranking FBI official today in New York before this happened. And he was saying that one of the most unfortunate lessons that people got from the 2010 attack is because the bomb didn't kill anyone, people somehow thought the al Qaeda threat was gone. That bomb came within inches of mass destruction.

Today, in Boston, unfortunately this was -- I have heard everything from two to five bombs up there, explosive devices they were there and at least two of them went off and it's absolute devastation.

And I just think of an 8-year-old boy, an 8-year-old child being killed at an ultimate all-American event. I mean, the cradle of liberty, Boston, the marathon, Patriots Day. What can be better than bringing an eight-year-old child to that and have a young man or a young girl killed at an event like that. It shows how horrible and despicable these people are and we can never let our guard down.

O'REILLY: right and there's no doubt about it. And I don't want to be quibbling with the Commander-in-Chief because the President did his job today. And I trust that he will get to the bottom of it and order all the resources to do it. But it's not a tragedy. I mean these are well, thought-out military campaigns, directed against civilians.

KING: Right.

O'REILLY: This is what the Nazis did. All right? And people do have to be aware. Now, we understand that the 8-year-old was a girl, a little girl who was killed.

KING: Wow. Horrible.

O'REILLY: And there's eight other children that the "Boston Globe" reporting that they are injured. And a lot of these injuries are horrific. I mean you have been to the theater of war in Afghanistan and in Iraq as have I. And you know the Wounded Warrior situation. When these things go off, they are so intense and -- and it just makes me really angry.

This whole thing makes me really angry that these people, in a free society you know we can't stop -- we have been fortunate to stop it for 12 years. But now they -- one of them got through and this is what happens.

KING: And requires an all-out intensive effort, Bill. And that's why we cannot be cutting back on police, we can't be stopping the police the way people try to do in New York from being aggressive. They have to be aggressive this enemy is despicable.

O'REILLY: No I know, I mean they don't want to stop and frisk. They don't want this. They don't want that. And you're absolutely right. Now, maybe this will recede as it did in the -- in the first attack on 9/11.

KING: Right.

O'REILLY: People said, you know what? Safety first. Protection first and now this crazy madness at the CPAC.

Final question, when the -- when you talk to the FBI. You say you're going to get briefed tomorrow. Who's -- who's going to do that briefing, Congressman? Who's going to tell you and will they tell you it's an active investigation, they don't like to put a lot of stuff out in the media because they want to chase down a whole bunch of people. They catch one. They want to know who their friends are but will you get a pretty good idea tomorrow of what happened?

KING: Bill, I think we have to. And we have to push for it. If we don't get it up front, we have to push for it. I think we will. In view of this, I mean, in view of the fact that it's right here in the homeland.

O'REILLY: What time is your meeting, what time is your briefing tomorrow?

KING: I think it's late morning.

O'REILLY: Will you come on, will you come on tomorrow night here on this program?

KING: Sure. Absolutely.

O'REILLY: All right. So I'm going to book the Congressman now for tomorrow. He'll tell us about the briefing. Because, look, I mean, we really need to act quickly here and get as much information to the people as possible. Congressman, we can't thank you enough for taking the time this evening in a very terrible situation.

KING: Bill thank you. Thank you, Bill.

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